Blocking Spam, One Unwanted Email at a Time

Why are we still talking about blocking spam in 2025? We’re already through the first quarter of the 21^st Century, but spam email is still a problem for millions of people. You’d think that with today’s advanced technology, email service providers would have figured out a way to stop it. Fact is, even though they’ve made incredible strides filtering out emails before they get to us, there’s always more spam on the way.

Are you still getting more unwanted email? Is your inbox filled with messages you constantly have to delete? If the answer is yes, you’re not alone. It’s a problem for millions of people.

Yet plenty of people don’t have many problems with spam because, over the years, they’ve taken steps or used strategies that have helped prevent it from reaching their email addresses. It is doable.

Who wants your email address?

Two groups want your email address: those who need it, and those who don’t. It’s the second group that causes spam problems.

About the first group. As we all know, our lives revolve around our digital identity these days. We all need an email account and a cellphone to manage just about every aspect of our lives. Our favorite stores, doctors, lawyers, and employers communicate with us digitally. No getting around that: they need our email address, and we give it to them.

But think about this: Those people aren’t the ones who send us spam. They hopefully only send us important and necessary messages. That is why we gave them our email address when they asked for it. We knew it was part of the business or working relationship. We also believed that they wouldn’t then share those email addresses with other companies or organizations—and most of the time, they don’t.

Blocking spam is meant for the second group.

Then there’s a group of people who have your email address and may bombard you with spam. Somehow and somewhere, they captured your email address, along with millions of others, and fill our inboxes with all types of messages, none of which we want. That doesn’t matter to the spammers. Because they’re not even real people.

What does that mean? Spam email is generated by automated programs that churn out millions of emails daily worldwide. There’s no personal connection or anything personalized about the single email you get from one spammer organization. It’s just a shot in the dark—a message the sender hopes you’ll respond to. You’re one of a million or billion names to them.

Strategies for blocking spam.

Here are some strategies and steps to help you reduce the amount of spam you get, so the only “annoying” emails you get are from friends sharing pics of their vacations or dinners. (You probably won’t block them anyway!)

Rule #1: Keep your main, primary email address to yourself as often as you can.

We don’t give out our phone number to anyone who asks for it because we don’t want strangers calling us whenever they feel like it. And why would a stranger need or ask for our phone number, anyway?

That’s how you should think about handing over your main email address. Limit giving it to people who need it, and think twice before giving it to those who simply want it or ask for it.

Warning! Never hit the “unsubscribe” link on what you think is a spam email. It might cause more problems than you want. Read our article first.

Rule #2. Don’t give it out to someone who doesn’t truly need it.

One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to fill out a form to enter a contest or sweepstakes and fill in your primary email address. Sometimes you’ll see a bicycle on display at a mall or fair as part of a free giveaway. To enter, you only need to provide your name and email address. They’ll contact the lucky winner.

Well, not only will you not win, you’ll start receiving spam email soon, once all the emails have been collected, put in a massive database, and sold to whatever organization wants to buy them. That’s a sure way to guarantee spam email in your inbox.

Rule #3. Flag spam email when you do get it and block it.

Don’t just delete spam email; take steps to block it and hopefully prevent more messages from that sender. Every email service has a process for blocking unwanted emails—or more accurately, blocking senders. For example, if you researched how to block spam email in Yahoo, here’s what you’ll find:

For blocking spam email on Yahoo:

Open a message from the sender, click the three dots menu (…), and select Block sender. Alternatively, go to Settings (gear icon) > More Settings > Security and Privacy to manually add, delete, or manage up to 1,000 blocked email addresses or domains.

Take and follow those steps precisely, and it can decrease the amount of spam you receive. While you’re at it, see what other security features your email provider offers to help you limit and prevent spam.

Rule #4. Report spam. (Hint: you will take care of this with Rule #3.)

When you block an email you receive, you’re doing more than you think. An email provider like Yahoo will take that action a step further. What you will actually be doing is reporting specific spam emails and preventing more from being sent.

Rule #5. Examine every email closely.

By choosing “block sender” while that email is still sitting in your inbox, your email provider will automatically take anti-spam steps on your behalf. You cannot keep deleting spam emails in the hope that they’ll eventually go away. That’s not how it works. Or, to put it another way, that just doesn’t work.

So long to spam: Block, mark, report, and junk.

Keep in mind that all email providers want to eliminate spam, too. They have powerful filters in place to spot and prevent it from reaching their email users’ inboxes. They know it’s in your best interest, and it is in theirs, too. So, when you take a step to block an unwanted email, Yahoo will ask you if you want to do more. They will automatically give you the options to do the following:

Send all future emails from that address to the Spam folder
Ask if you wish to delete existing emails from that sender
If you answer yes, Yahoo will proceed to look for additional spam activity from that sender or domain.

The block-filter-report process works the same with virtually all sophisticated email platforms. Remember, they need to eliminate spam and try to stay a step ahead of it, too.

You do your part in blocking spam, and they’ll do theirs.

One thing to remember: Your email provider can’t block out spam that it doesn’t already filter out without your help. It’s a team effort, which is why they provide the tools on their platform to do it. Do your part to stop scams cold by doing the following.

And when that happens, the same spam email gets labeled as junk and may never even reach your inbox.

Stay informed about security and privacy issues.

To learn more about protecting your email, your privacy, and your identity, visit our Learning Center and explore links to articles and interviews on the topic.

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